


Pride

by therealraewest



Category: The Property of Hate
Genre: Developing Relationship, Gay Pride, Gen, HIV/AIDS, M/M, On air, Radio static, background julienne/melody and tinker&tailor, human again au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-15
Updated: 2019-04-15
Packaged: 2020-01-13 14:59:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18471319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/therealraewest/pseuds/therealraewest
Summary: Thrust back into living human lives, TOby and Dial have many adjustments to make. TOby also finds himself playing educator to the cousins who died several decades before he did, while also trying to catch himself up with the world and the many ways it has changed since he'd been gone. The gang go to Pride.





	Pride

**Author's Note:**

> I'll admit that I'm very nervous to post this fic, despite the research and care I've tried to put into this topic and the corresponding headcanons. I based a lot of this fic on personal experience surrounding pride and queer spaces, and tried to do my due research on bits that I can't personally attest to. I'm hoping that I've done it some justice, and please let me know anything that I can do to improve in the future.

            TOby disappeared without a word their first night alive again.

            Dial and TOby had taken the plunge together, and spent a few hours calling around, asking questions, and eventually ended up on the doorstep of a frazzled blonde man and a wide-eyed child who at first hid behind the man's coattails, but ran to embrace them both once she heard them speak.

            "You're so big," she'd told TOby as he carried her back inside.

            "Nah," he said, "you're just small."

            Dial and RGB had sat down to discuss technical details - where they'd sleep, what to do next - until several hours later Hero came to ask if they'd seen the other man, which they hadn't.

            "Maybe he's tired of us," RGB mused, not sounding particularly put out either way. "I wouldn't blame him."

            _Maybe he's tired of you_ , said a voice in Dial's head. _You couldn't blame him._

            But the spare key had also gone missing, and that night as Dial laid on the couch and tried to relearn how to sleep he heard the quiet sound of the door opening and closing, and then he wasn't alone in the dark.

            TOby didn't say anything, just moved to lay beside Dial (a challenging feat on the tiny couch that RGB claimed had come off a curb somewhere) and held him tight, so tight. Dial only disentangled himself so he could face TOby, wrapping his own arms around the man's chest and tangling their legs together. TOby's cheeks caught the low light in the apartment, shiny trails of quiet tears, but he said nothing, so Dial didn't ask.

            The dark and swirling anxiety made him whisper, breathy and quiet like he was afraid anyone other than TOby would hear, like he was afraid that TOby would hear him and take him up on his offer. "You don't have to stay here. You can go anywhere you want to go. I don't want you to feel-"

            TOby held him tighter, cutting off the words. "I'm not going anywhere."

            They held tight until morning.

 

*

 

            There was a little bookshop with a rainbow flag out front and TOby had insisted they all check it out. RGB and Dial loved stories, and TOby and Hero loved books, so they milled around, finding different things to be fascinated with.

            "Lookie here, Arge," said Dial, picking up a rainbow pin from a bin TOby was sorting through and aligning it horizontally, holding at arm's length until it covered his cousin's head at his perspective. "Looks familiar."

            "It's certainly a colorful shop," said RGB, batting Dial's hand away as his cousin barked a laugh.

            "Yeah, I ain't seen so many rainbows in one place in... well ever maybe? The owner sure must like 'em."

            TOby paused with his hands halfway buried in pins, looking to the other two with furrowed brows. He looked them down, then back up again, then held up a copy of Dial's rainbow pin. "You don't know what this is?"

            "A pin," said RGB.

            "A print of RGB's pillow in the morning," said Dial.

            "A flag," piped Hero from a beanbag in the corner, where she'd plopped with a book about unicorns.

            TOby furrowed his brows, shooting a glance to the person behind the till, as if making sure they were out of earshot. Still he leaned forward, his voice lowered. "When exactly did you guys die?"

            RGB immediately became flustered, going off about _you can't honestly expect me to remember, we barely know what year it is **now** , let alone-_ while Dial simply said "Mid 60's, 'bout."

            TOby huffed a sigh, then dragged both cousins by the collars to a section towards the back. A cleanly lettered sign declared the shelf **_LGBT History_**.

            "Start from Stonewall, work your way forward," grumbled TOby, leaving the two to their research.

            By the time they were ready to head home, RGB and Dial had picked out a couple of the most comprehensive and affordable books from the history section, Hero added her book on unicorns, and TOby placed a couple of dented, vintage pins on top of a small book of short stories.

            Dial plucked one of TOby's pins off the pile and the other man seemed almost to tense for a moment, watching Dial's face closely. The lanky ginger read the pin and gave a lopsided smile looking up to TOby with fondness in his gaze.

            "Always a rebel, huh?"

            "You know me," said TOby, his face unreadable.

            Dial leaned forward, carefully pinning the article to TOby's shirt. White letters on a black background, declaring simply **_ACT UP_**.

           

*

 

            "The first Pride was a riot, and I can't believe I missed it by _two years._ "

            "I know, babe."

            "Two! I was even in Brooklyn! If that damn cousin'a mine could'a held off for _two more years_ -"

            "There they are!" shouted Hero, waving enthusiastically from Dial's shoulders (him being the tallest and, according to Hero, her best chance of being seen) as a float for the local Queer Artist's Alliance puttered forward at the same crawl as the rest of the parade.

            It wasn't hard to find Julienne and Melody, waving right back at Hero and the rest from their spot on the float, free hands resting one atop the other on the safety rail that ran along the float's length. Julienne turned her head, calling over her shoulder, and a moment later Tailor and Tinker crossed the float and were also waving. Tailor seemed like they were about to make a rude gesture, but Tinker managed to wrestle their hands down before they could, causing a bout of laughter on the float as it passed.

            "We could've found some organization to march with," said TOby.

            "It's rather charming to experience it from this level," said RGB from beside him, hands tucked in his pant pockets. "Besides, it's nice to be out of the spotlight for once. Maybe next year we can get more involved. This... is a yearly occasion, isn't it?"

            "Every June," confirmed TOby.

            "A riot! God!" Dial exclaimed, looking down to TOby. "Where were _you_ when it happened?"

            "Still a kid," said TOby. "Guess that makes you a cradle robber."

            "Ugh," said RGB, lifting Hero off of Dial's shoulders. "Come now, Hero, let's see if we can follow the float and meet our friends at the end, hm?"

            The four of them followed the parade to a sort of festival atmosphere, with tents selling colorful regalia of all kinds. The rest of the past heroes had climbed off their float and promised to meet up at a set time for lunch in the park where festivities were being held.

            RGB took Hero one direction, and Dial bounced from tent to tent, asking questions to patient shopkeepers as TOby walked along, looking around more passively. At one point Dial found him just standing and staring at a large van that was pulled up on the path - well dressed aides with clipboards having discussions with various patrons as the side of the van advertised _10 minute screenings_.

            "Y'allright doll?" asked Dial, slipping his hand into TOby's and squeezing.

            "Yeah," said TOby, a breathy laugh accompanying a wry smile. "Just thinking how different things are." He turned away, changing the topic swiftly. "What've you been finding?"

            "Oh, did'ja know there's more flags? I've been askin' around - there's all sorts-"

            By the time they made it to the rendezvous spot, Dial was wearing a blue pink and white flag like a cape, and had tied a rainbow one around TOby's shoulders as well. He had another, pink yellow and blue, folded and ready to present to RGB. It seemed RGB was the first one to have arrived, and was sitting on a bench beside two much older ladies as Hero worked her way through an elephant ear, powdered sugar coating her cheeks and the tip of her nose.

            "Making friends?" asked TOby as they approached.

            "Ah, yes, Margaret, Elaine, I believe I told you about my cousin and his partner-" RGB made introductions, and as the ladies moved to sit back down RGB leaned towards the other two and whispered "they're quite old, seem a bit unsure of the year. It seems... safe, to speak rather openly, regardless of time gaps."

            And so they spoke about years gone by, about Friends of Dorothy, about before there were specific flags, or flags at all, about spinster circles and how it used to be standard for men to kiss even in film. Though at a certain point RGB couldn't quite keep up, and then Dial soon after, and it was just TOby and the women, talking with increasingly heavy voices about things the other two couldn't quite follow. One woman recognized the pins on TOby's shirt, discussed quilts and protests and sitting by hospital beds, burials without any blood family present, funeral homes that wouldn’t touch bodies.

            "I was there, the Day of Desperation they were calling it," said Elaine. "All those die-ins in Washington."

            TOby laughed once. "I might've seen you there."

            "You may have, they were dragging me off in cuffs by the end of it," Elaine reached over, taking TOby's hand. "You're looking well, treatments are much better now, aren't they?"

            TOby suddenly seemed at a loss for words, but was saved by the rest of their group arriving. They bid the ladies adieu, thanking them for the conversation, and began to walk to find a spot where all of them would be able to sit together.

            Dial wove an arm through TOby's, his pace slowing despite his long legs until they were lagging behind the rest of the group. Dial was looking at him, but TOby stared forward, not making eye contact.

            "You were sick," said Dial, more a statement than a question.

            "Yes," said TOby.

            "What was it?"

            TOby grimaced. "Keep reading your books. You'll get there eventually."

            "Tobes-"

            TOby finally looked up at Dial. The tall man's eyes were full of concern and confusion, and TOby loved him but he didn't know how he could possibly explain himself. Still, he tried.

            "Why do you think," he started, trying to find words for a wordless thing, "I said ‘yes’ when a monster arrived and asked me to be a hero? I was... fuck, I was going on 40, a man that age should have a life, a career, a future. Why would a guy like that say yes to what I said yes to?"

            "You were dying."

            "Yes." He swallowed hard. "They could slow it down, for all the money you had, but nobody knew how to cure it. They still don’t, far as I can tell." He strained a laugh. "I was falling apart at the seams. I got a second chance, and I took it. Didn't turn out too great, other than meeting you." He squeezed the arm around his own. "And then... we won. And we came back. A third chance. A new life. Felt too good to be true, so I... When we got back, figured there'd be a clinic somewhere."

            "And-?"

            "And I'm not sick anymore. I'm not a god-fearing guy but it almost feels like someone up there finally is cutting me a break."

            "Why'd you never say anything?"

            TOby laughed. "And tell you I no longer have a disease you never knew existed? Listen," he stopped in his tracks, taking both of Dial's hands in his own. "We're here. We are alive, despite everything. I'm ready to stop living in the past, and just start living. You know?"

            Dial takes a long moment, looking from TOby's hands to his eyes, mind whirling beneath ginger curls. Eventually, he smiles and squeezes TOby's hands.

            "I do," he said.

            "Hey lovebirds!" called Julienne from up ahead. "You'd better hustle before all the sandwiches are gone!"

            The tension broke over them like a wave, and both of them found themselves laughing, looking up the way at the strange gaggle of people whom the heroing business had managed to drag together, the people who still didn’t quite have the hang of being human again, but were working on it, together. Hand in hand, Dial and TOby moved towards their friends, and towards their new life.


End file.
